This invention relates to electric can openers in general and more particularly relates to a battery powered automatic can opener.
As explained in the T. R. Meyer and R. W. Arel, U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,271, issued Dec. 29, 1974 for an Automatic Can Opener, early constructions for power operated can openers utilized an electric motor to drive a mechanism very similar to that of a hand operated can opener. To utilize such mechanisms, a manual force had to be applied in order to pierce the can lid. In modifications of these early constructions, motor operated can openers provided for power piercing of the can top and also provided for automatically stopping the electric motor when the can top was completely severed from the can body.
Unfortunately, these added features also added complexity to the can opener mechanisms and made them unnecessarily bulky, especially when such can openers were intended to be used with tall cans.